Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/02

Bangkok, April 2 (CNA) Taiwanese and Thai police and investigators have worked together to crack down on drug traffickers who were planning to smuggle 48 kilograms of heroin into Taiwan, a senior Thai officer said Saturday.

It was the most serious drug trafficking crime in Thailand to have been thwarted in recent years, said Rewat Klinkaysorn, head of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau in the Southeast Asian country, at a news conference.

In collaboration with Taiwan’s Investigation Bureau, Thai police seized the drugs, 1,050 bullets and 13,000 ecstasy pills, as well as about NT$4.96 million (US$153,536) in cash, Rewat said.     [FULL  STORY]

MAYOR MOCKED:A Facebook campaign targeting Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said more community activities should be organized ‘to lure the eccentric Ko from his home’

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 03, 2016
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter

The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that the Taipei City Government’s alleged forced

hospitalization of a homeless man surnamed Ting (丁) on Thursday was flawed, demanding that Ting be discharged immediately from Taipei City Hospital’s Songde Branch.

It is unclear whether Ting had any intention of hurting himself or others at the time of his hospitalization, but Ting was hospitalized against his will and deprived of his personal freedom, which is a breach of the Mental Health Act (精神衛生法), the court said.

The Songde hospital on Friday night said that it had transported Ting back to his usual spot at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in a taxi out of respect for his request to be discharged made in a teleconference with the court earlier that afternoon.

However, questions over the incident remained as statements by Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and the Taipei Department of Health did not seem to match up, adding to the confusion over the incident.     [FULL  STORY]

Straits Times
Date: APR 1, 2016
By: Chew Hui Min

Taiwan has been shaken again by a case of a mother finding her young daughter’s throat slit.

The 12-year-old girl survived the attack though. The incident happened in Tainan on Thursday (March 31) night, and the act was allegedly done by her mother’s ex-boyfriend, Taiwanese media reported.

The attack comes just days after a four-year-old girl nicknamed ‘Little Light Bulb’ was decapitated by a man in front of her mother in Taipei. The gruesome case shocked Taiwan and sparked public outrage.

In this latest incident, Madam Su and her two daughters – aged eight and 12 – were returning home from dinner in the evening when they found Madam Su’s ex-boyfriend hiding in their home, Apple Daily reported.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/01
By: Eva Feng and Y.F. Low

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) Justice Minister Luo Ying-shay (羅瑩雪) returned to Taiwan on Friday

from a historic trip to China that took her to Beijing and Shanghai.

Luo, who was leading a delegation of senior officials from her ministry, was the first justice minister from Taiwan to visit China in an official capacity.

She was invited by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the People’s Republic of China, based on a cross-Taiwan Strait agreement on joint crime-fighting and mutual judicial assistance.

During her visit to Beijing, Luo called on the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Supreme People’s Court and the National Prosecutors College of the PRC.     [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan Today
Date: April 1, 2016

A total of 86.7 percent of people in Taiwan prefer maintaining the status quo between the

two sides of Taiwan Strait, according to a survey released March 29 by the ROC Mainland Affairs Council.

The poll showed 81.9 percent support the government in continuing to promote the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations in accordance with the ROC Constitution and President Ma Ying-jeou’s principle of no unification, no independence and no use of force.

It also found that 72.7 percent do not agree with Beijing’s concept of one China, while 78.6 percent believe the development of cross-strait relations will benefit if mainland China squarely faces the reality that the two sides are under separate rule and respects the will of Taiwan’s people.

The MAC said that the government is committed to promoting institutionalized negotiations and official exchanges between the two sides based on the 1992 consensus of one China, with respective interpretations, which means that each side having its own interpretation of what this means.

Such efforts over the past eight years are supported in the survey’s findings: 87 percent prefer the government to continue to promote official exchanges and institutionalized negotiations. As for the pace of cross-strait exchanges, a total of 45.1 percent said it is appropriate: 21.5 percent considering it too fast and 21 percent, too slow.     [FULL  STORY]

PRIVACY CONCERNS:DPP Legislator Wang Jung-chang said that if mental illness records are shared among government agencies, people might forgo treatment

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 02, 2016
By: Abraham Gerber and Sean Lin / Staff reporters

The alleged forced hospitalization by the Taipei City Government of a homeless man on

Thursday drew criticism yesterday, with groups saying moves to increase monitoring of people with mental illness could be a breach of privacy rights and could discourage them from seeking treatment.

A man surnamed Ting (丁), nicknamed “Wobble-wobble Man” (搖搖哥) for his distinctive gait by students of National Chengchi University, where he is often seen, was shown being forced into an ambulance in video footage posted online on Thursday.

“Even if he has a mental illness, if there is no concern that he will harm himself or others, he should not be consigned to hospital,” Taiwan Association for Human Rights deputy chairman Weng Kuo-yan (翁國彥) said.

“He was known to students for years and never sought to do anything that would harm anyone,” Weng said, adding that the association was seeking a judicial review to overturn the city’s decision, which he said breached the Mental Health Act (精神衛生法).

Any loosening of regulations governing forced hospitalization should be ruled out given the government’s abuse of its existing powers, Weng said.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/04/01
By: Sunrise Huang and Y.F. Low

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) Police on Thursday arrested a man who is suspected of deliberately starting a fire that killed six members of a family in New Taipei last month.

The suspect, surnamed Tang, held a grudge against the family and he set a scooter ablaze, which started the fire, according to police.

The fire, which broke out early in the morning of March 23, was found to have originated from a scooter parked under the pedestrian arcade of a residential building in the city’s Sanchong District.

The fire from the scooter spread to the building, resulting in the death of six members of a family that was living on the fourth floor.

Police said they targeted Tang as a key suspect after a surviving member of the family disclosed information about a dispute with Tang over a personal injury matter.    FULL  STORY]